Officer who defected to Iran ‘can damage’ US
A US Air Force officer has defected to Iran and shared information that could cause “serious damage” to America’s national security, officials have revealed.
The former Air Force intelligence specialist was charged with espionage and accused of working for Iran, according to a federal indictment.
The announcement arrived after Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers and other senior officials held a media call to discuss what they called “a national security-related action involving Iran”.
They discussed the unsealed indictment against Monica Witt, a former counter-intelligence officer for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Witt defected to Iran nearly six years ago in 2013.
Also charged are four Iranian hackers. Prosecutors say they targeted former colleagues of Witt’s in the intelligence community. The charges say the four Iranians were acting on behalf of the government-linked Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“It is a sad day for America when one of its citizens betrays our country,” said Mr Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division.
Witt remains at large. The 39-year-old “has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to deliver and delivering national defence information to representatives of the Iranian government,” according to the indictment revealed yesterday.
“Witt, who defected to Iran in 2013, is alleged to have assisted Iranian intelligence services in targeting her former fellow agents in the US Intelligence Community. Witt is also alleged to have disclosed the code name and classified mission of a US Department of Defence Special Access Programme,” the indictment continues.
A warrant has been placed for her arrest.
The four hackers, Mojtaba Masoumpour, Behzad Mesri, Hossein Parvar and Mohamad Paryar, have also been charged with conspiracy, attempts to commit computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft.
Their alleged crimes date back to 2014-2015, in which they are charged with “using fictional and imposter social media accounts and working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, sought to deploy malware that would provide them covert access to the targets’ computers and networks”. The hackers, referred to in the indictment as “Cyber Conspirators,” also remain at large and have warrants placed for their arrests.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the agency was taking action against “malicious Iranian cyber actors and covert operations that have targeted Americans at home and overseas”.
He also announced sanctions against Tehran-based organisation New Horizon.
“New Horizon hosts international conferences that have provided Iranian intelligence officers a platform to collect damaging information from attendees, while propagating anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial,” he said. (© Independent News Service)
‘It is a sad day when one of our citizens betrays our country’